10 best moments from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay demonstration

From sky diving to shipbuilding and more

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had its first gameplay demonstration from Nintendo, reintroducing fans to the world of Hyrule with roughly 10 minutes of gameplay. There were many fantastic moments and reveals in this presentation, ranging from each of the new powers to the islands in the sky.

10 best moments from the Tears of the Kingdom gameplay presentation

Even within the relatively brief gameplay demonstration for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, there are several standout moments that happen. Here are the 10 best situations and reveals that happened during the recent presentation in no particular order.

1. Recall power

Of the many new powers that Link has in Tears of the Kingdom, Recall has to be one of the most impressive. This power allows the Champion of Hyrule to rewind time on just about any object. This alone opens up countless gameplay possibilities, such as possibly sending a boulder back at enemies.

But, in the presentation, players get a glimpse of Link rewinding time on a rock that fell out of the sky. He effectively uses this as an elevator to go up into the sky and reach the new sky islands in almost no time.

2. Sky islands

Some of the possible concerns in the community about this Breath of the Wild sequel are its overt similarities to the original. Thankfully, there are some new locations to look forward to in the sky islands. Floating well above the region of Hyrule are new sky islands that players can visit.

In true Skyward Sword fashion, these floating islands include new content and enemies for players to encounter. It’s currently unknown how many sky islands exist, but this alone expands Hyrule greatly.

3. Fuse

The second new ability for Link in this game is Fuse. With this power, Link can take virtually any object and fuse them together. In the first instance of this, he’s seen fusing together a rock and a branch to create a rudimentary hammer.

This makeshift weapon is more durable than using the branch on its own to fight. But there are other uses shown off for the Fuse power, such as creating eyeball arrows that hone in on enemies and require less skill for aiming.

4. Ultrahand vehicles

Similar to Fuse, Ultrahand is another one of the new abilities Link has. This one takes the Fuse idea and applies it to objects for other purposes besides combat. In the reveal of this power, Link puts three logs together along with some strange ancient fans to make a raft.

He is then able to use that raft to cross a river that might have taken a long time or too much stamina to swim across otherwise. With this power, players have the chance to make their own wacky vehicles for the land, sky, and sea.

5. Ascend

The final ability shown off in this gameplay trailer is Ascend. This ability allows Link to travel through the ceiling of a structure to the floor or platform above him. You can see Link using this power to pass through the ceiling above him to reach the top of a ruined structure. He also uses it inside a cave to pass through to the hillside above. Outside of some undefined restrictions, this will greatly improve Link’s ability to get places fast. You can even use it to pass through entire mountains as long as there’s a cave.

6. Defeating a Construct

This gameplay demonstration still felt like a teaser of what’s to come, but one of the best parts was one of the few combat sections. Players are shown a new enemy known as a Construct. This foe looks like a rather basic enemy with the same ancient mechanical Guardian aesthetic from BOTW.

The Construct is capable of wielding its own weapon, such as a branch, to fight back against Link. It even drops some new materials like the Zonai Charge and Soldier Construct Horn.

7. Skydiving

Toward the end of the gameplay demonstration, Link is spectacularly knocked off of the sky island. In the process, skydiving is shown off, which looks seamless and impressive. Certainly giving off some Fortnite vibes, players can dive and glide to nearly anywhere in Hyrule, by speeding up their descent.

8. Full view of all of Hyrule

In the midst of the sky diving section, this trailer gives some serious Breath of the Wild opening moments vibes. Just like the classic opener that shows Link looking at the sweeping view of Hyrule, this is an aerial twist as the player does a 360-degree look at the revamped Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom. You can see mountains, a dragon, and a heavily corrupted location of some sort in the distance.

9. Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch

At the conclusion of the gameplay demonstration, Nintendo revealed the game is getting its own themed Nintendo Switch console. The Tears of the Kingdom Switch is an OLED version, featuring some of the beautiful symbols and style from the game on the Joy-Con, docking station, and backside of the device.

It arrives before the game on April 28, 2023. In addition, a themed Switch Pro Controller and theme carrying case will also be available on the game’s launch day.

10. Development is finished

One of the biggest surprises to come out of the presentation was an update on Tears of the Kingdom’s development. The game is now officially ready and complete from start to finish. With well over a month to go, the entire game is now ready to reach players’ hands.

It isn’t certain if this includes any possible day-one patch, though. However, this news is exciting since it means Tears of the Kingdom is now ready for players to lose themselves in Hyrule all over again on May 12, 2023.